Often, we give scant credence to the sounds that surround us. It was on September 15, 2012 at nine in the morning at our home when I took five minutes to listen to and the following are the sounds that I wrote down after hearing them. As I was moving around and was near the fence separating our home and that of our neighbor, I heard someone in the next home giving an almost muffled scratchy belch that it was over as soon as it started and as if on cue, another yawned loudly, his yawn hoarse. Someone in that home must have been angered by those two ironical sounds because what I have heard next was a stereo blaring and for the whole duration I listened with some of the songs playing over and over again. The sound grated my ears. As I sat down on the green patch of grass where I stood, I have heard the instant smooth static glide of my clothes as my muscles flexed. Suddenly, there was a gust of wind and a metal wind chime that had been placed by my brother in the flower garden produced a tinkling sound that went over and over again. Coincidentally, my cell phone beeped to notify me that I had received a message: the sound was so muffled and short that I could have missed it weren’t I attentive. I ignored it.
After the third home north of ours, there is a church. It is from there that the church bell tolled three times””each toll as melodious as the latter though short-lived”” reminding the faithful that they had to go and clean the church in preparation for the next day’s church service. Shortly later, I heard the paradiddle from one of the church members, the drum beaten in a mnonotonous drawl. As I lay belly up on where I had been standing, I saw a lonely bird perched a tree nearby and as if showing me its solitude, it chirped melodiously and sadly for three times before flying away, each chirp similar to the former in tone. Wisps of altostratus clouds dotted the sky and I was looking for comparable objects when I saw an air force jet fighter passing by overhead with a supersonic speed, its whine whistle sailed over heard late after the jet had disappeared on the horizon: the sound was overly loud and grating to the ears . Not yet used to such a sound, our horse whined in fear and briefly gave a galloping sound, its hooves clattering on the driveway before settling down. Inquisitively, the shepherd dog barked loudly once, its bark rather harsh.
To the right of our home is a busy road which had been temporarily closed due to the repair works and I could hear cars zipping by endlessly, the sound smooth, an indication that the road had just been opened. In the undergrowth next to the patch of grass where I was sitting, I have heard the rustling of leaves for a while and the unmistakable almost silent hissing of a snake. I have ophidiophobia and when it registered in my mind, I hurriedly stood and unknowingly gave a shrilling sound, that reached its tempo after a few seconds. I was thinking what to do next when I have heard a car’s tires scrunching on the gravel driveway, the sound laste when it stopped. As the car came into view, I have heard its tires splash noisily through a pool of water that had been collected on a pothole on the driveway. When the car drew to halt it had an immediate rough banshee screech sound , as it was parked in the parking space next to my father’s car, and I have heard the momentarily loud clunk of its doors as they were closing, so I mustered the courage to go and find out who our guests were.
Islam has developed certain rules by which music is created and performed. The following is a description of the impact that Islam has had on the development of music for the people of the Middle East and beyond. In the Middle East, Islam influenced its people in the following way. Upon the conversion of the Seljuk Turks — a nomadic tribe — to Islam, the tribe influenced Arabia, Iran and Turkish classical music genres (Raza 98). In Africa, “taaraba”, an Islamic music genre, inspired the taarab music, popular on the East African coastline. In North Africa, the Rai and Chaabi music genres trace their origin to Islam. Also Islam greatly influenced the religious music played by the Ghanawi of West Africa. Sunan Kalijogo, a Muslim saint, endorsed the Gamelan ensemble as a trademark of adherent to Islam in Java. In Indonesia, the Gambus was influenced by Arabic migrants.